XI Sunday of the Year

STARTUP!

Ezekiel 17:22-24; 2 Corinthians 5:6-10; Mark 4:26-34

Readings for the XI Sunday of the Year

Jeff Bezos started an online bookstore in his garage in Bellevue in 1994. Today Amazon is the world’s largest online retailer.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin started a search-algorithm project in a friend’s garage in 1998. Since their project was interfering with their schoolwork, they tried to sell it to Excite for $1 million, which rejected the offer. Google is the most trafficked site in the world.

In 1976, twenty-year-old Steve Jobs hand-built fifty computers in a garage in Cupertino. Today, Apple is the most valuable tech company in the world.

Everything starts small, including the kingdom of God! It is a startup! In the gospel, Jesus gives two images of the kingdom.

The first image emphasizes that the building of the kingdom is God’s work. It goes on whether we are aware of it or not! Our task, like that of the farmer, is to scatter the seeds of the kingdom – love, joy, hope – and to wait!

In the second image, Jesus compares the kingdom to a mustard seed. The tiny seed grows into a large shrub and provides shelter for birds in its branches; the kingdom has tiny beginnings and gives space for people of different races and regions. A similar image in the first reading speaks of God taking a tender shoot and causing it to grow into a mighty cedar, a dwelling for birds of every kind.

In a world where we face numerous difficulties and challenges– as individuals, as families, as communities, and as a church – it’s so easy to give in to discouragement. We want to give up because our little acts seem to make no difference to the world; we can’t see how there can be light anywhere in this darkness; we don’t know how a loss or a death can result in life. These are parables of hope.

Bezos, Page and Brin, Jobs didn’t begin by trying to create Amazon, Google, and Apple; they started an online bookstore, a search algorithm, and a computer. The mustard plant didn’t start from a shrub; it started from a small and insignificant seed. The kingdom of God is not an established empire; it begins from little acts of love and kindness.

Will I begin from where I am, scatter the seeds of love, joy, encouragement, support... and leave the growth of the kingdom to God? Where and how will I scatter the kingdom seeds?

May you and I scatter the seeds of the kingdom, act with love, and walk with hope that God will bring to fruition our small beginnings.